Yesterday, we revealed that the $400 Million deal that Soulja Boy has been “low balled” with had nothing to do with music, but rather was part of his own interests in the gaming industry.
$400 million deal confirmed. I still they think they low balled me though. I was thinking 2 or 3 billion..
— Soulja Boy (@souljaboy) May 1, 2016
The deal was struck with the World Poker Fund (WPF), who (unironically) credited Soulja Boy as “one of the most influential urban entertainers and artist on social media today.”
Turns out the lavish compliments may have been to compensate for the fact that this huge deal is, in fact, not even close to the 9 digit figure that the rapper originally claimed.
When WPF confirmed the deal last week, people were left wondering how on earth a company that made a $400,000 loss last year could afford to fork out $80 million per year to someone for a five-year period.
The answer, according to Forbes, is that the company is paying the rapper stock, which is capped at $400 million.
In return for promotion of the company, Soulja Boy has received 1.5 million shares, with one share currently worth around the $1.70 mark.
“He really kind of jumped the gun using the $400 million figure,” said WPF spokesperson Matthew Bird.
“The deal is capped at $400 million, and it’s based on a forward-thinking valuation of the company. He’s young, he’s 25 years old. He got really excited, and he tweeted something he probably shouldn’t have tweeted. He was getting a lot of pressure from within the entertainment community, so he wanted to put a statement out. Obviously, the company’s market cap is at $51.8 million. There’s no way they could cut a $400 million deal. Endorsement deals are calculated on a lot of different factors. This is not a fully cash transaction.”
Right. Riiiiiiight.
It seems Soulja Boy’s profile has gone from Americas hottest new entrepreneur to over-exaggerating fibber in the space of 12 hours.
While the deal is now more… realistically believable, it still baffles us as to what reason could drive a major company, with endorsements from the likes of both Justin Bieber and Floyd Mayweather, to pay an overrated yester-rapper for promotion. I supposed Soulja Boy Told’em.
At any level, this is an incredibly strange endorsement, one that’s reminded us of the many weird and wonderful musical endorsements that can be found throughout the industry.
Hopefully Soulja makes more sense on the his upcoming mixtape with fellow contemporary Lil Yachty.
Image: localsavage